Pages

Monday, January 28, 2013

Madeleines a l’ancienne - Old-Fashioned Madeleines

“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” Marcel Proust

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I want to begin with a spoiler alert for the romantics among you. I have been known, usually without malice, to burst a bubble or two. Tonight I fear I'm going to do that to lovers of Proust and his beloved madeleines. I suspect that everyone knows that the madeleine is the shell-shaped confection that inspired his legendary reverie in Remembrance of Things Past. You'll recall, I'm sure, the scene in the book where the narrator dips a madeleine into a cup of tea. Bits of the cookie settle into the tea and when it is stirred, a spoonful contains crumbs that release the flood of memories that fill the rest of the novel. There is one small problem. That doesn't happen when you soak a typical madeleine in tea. There are purists who, in the interest of transparency, test such things and they say the Proustian madeleine does not exist. I suspect he used Proustian poetic license, but some guys just can't get a break. It seems that scholars agree that an early version of Remembrance of Things Past was inspired by a piece of toast. I can't write much about toast, but I can share this wonderful and unusual recipe for madeleines with you. It is unusual because the soft cookies are leavened with yeast. Don't let that scare you off. They are really easy to make. I really love these petite cakes and I consider the recipe I'm featuring tonight to be a treasure. Don't stress about the use of European butter if it is not readily available. I often make these using standard sweet butter. While European butter has 3% more butterfat than brands typically found in the supermarket, the madeleines made with 80% will bedelicious as well. The recipe that follows comes from Saveur magazine.

Site Meter

Privacy Policy

This blog does not share personal information with third-parties nor does it store information about your visit for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a a users prior visits to this website. Google's use of the DoubleClick cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads. This blog is not responsible for the republishing of the content found here on other Web sites or media without the owners permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice